Renee Ellmers: GOP's Obamacare replacement may be multiple bills

A GOP plan to replace Obamacare may be a collection of different bills rather than a single omnibus package, a Republican congresswoman said Wednesday.

“We’ve got to come together on a plan, and it may actually end up being multiple bills we vote on,” Rep. Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, a member of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, said at a POLITICO Health Care Breakfast Briefing in Washington.

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Ellmers said getting Republicans to agree on one plan is like “herding cats” but that ultimately the party will examine “what has worked and what hasn’t worked” about Obamacare to devise a solution.

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) countered that Obamacare is already in force and working.

“It’s easier to say you’ll do it than to actually get it done,” he said, noting that the health care law’s four-year anniversary is approaching.

While acknowledging that “there’s no doubt the …law needs improving,” Becerra argued that the best way to turn it into a success is to drive up enrollment by March 31.

“Ramp it up as much as we can, so as many people as possible say they now have the health security they didn’t before,” he said.

But Ellmers said the frequent Obamacare delays and changes pushed by the administration are proof that the health law has already botched its mission and won’t recover.

“It simply isn’t going to pan out,” she said. “There are laws that are good and laws that are bad. This happens to be a bad one. The results show that by having to change it so many times in order to apply it is result enough.”